Southern University and A&M College is a comprehensive institution offering four-year, graduate, professional, and doctorate degree programs, fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The University today is part of the only historically black Land Grant university system in the United States.

Southern University and A&M College is a comprehensive institution offering four-year, graduate, professional, and doctorate degree programs, fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The University today is part of the only historically black Land Grant university system in the United States.

HBCUs Symposium

Quality Education as a Constitutionally Protected Right and the Role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Symposium

About the Program

The "Quality Education as a Constitutional Right and the Role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)" Symposium will be hosted by the SUS, SULC, and the SULC Journal of Race, Gender, and Poverty, in partnership with the Mississippi Freedom 50th Anniversary on Wednesday and Thursday, March 26-27, 2014.

The first segment of this event will be held from 9:00 AM to 4:15 PM on March 26th in A. A. Lenoir Hall and from 8:00 AM to 4:45 PM on March 27th in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Smith-Brown Memorial Student Union on the Southern University at Baton Rouge (SUBR) campus, as part of the SUBR Centennial Celebration.

The public premiere of the PBS's American Experience documentary, "Freedom Summer," will be a feature of the symposium set for 6:00 PM on Wednesday, March 26th in the Cotillion Ballroom.

The symposium will offer panel discussions, workshops, plenary sessions, and case studies including, but not limited to, the following topics:

Accountability, Assessment: Act One and Act Two;

The potential impact of a St. George breakaway school district on the EBRP School System;

Higher Education Affordability and For-Profit Universities;

The Quest to Access Education by Persons of African Descent: An Historical Overview;

Advancing Public Education in the South: Past and Present;

HBCUs and their Role in Desegregation and Access to Quality Education at the Collegiate Level;

The Gordian Knot and Black Colleges; and

The Challenge to Access Quality Education: the New Orleans Case Study

Invited speakers include: Terron Ferguson, Fellow, Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, New York University Law School; Dr. Albert Samuels, SUBR Department of Political Science; Barbara Ferguson, Director of Research on Reforms; Attorney Tracie Washington, Louisiana Justice Institute; Dr. Lezlie Baskerville, NAFEO; David J. Dennis, Sr., Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project; Derrick Johnson, State President, NAACP, Jackson, Mississippi; Louisiana State Representative Patricia Haynes Smith, District 67; Attorneys Ernest Johnson, President of the Louisiana State Conference of NAACP, Alvin Washington, and Arthur Thomas, all of Baton Rouge; and other local and national education, legislative, and academic leaders.

Registration is free and no advance reservations are necessary. For more information, please contact, Vice Chancellor John Pierre, SULC Institutional Advancement and Evening School, (225) 771-2552 or Jpierre@sulc.edu.